Details about the Fatal Accident in Mesquite

An investigation into the accident revealed that a 2004 Dodge Ram was headed west pulling a 2010 utility trailer when the trailer became detached from the truck and went over the center median into the eastbound lanes of traffic.

A 2003 Ford Windstar minivan carrying three passengers was driving in the east bound lanes when it was hit by the utility trailer head-on.

The driver of the van, 61-year-old Marisela Gomez Maldonado of Kaufman, was taken by air to Baylor Hospital in Dallas in critical condition, but later died as a result of her injuries. The other two passengers in the van, 48-year-old Belen Soriano, and 37-year-old Isabelle Mendez, both of Kaufman, were transported to Dallas Regional Hospital in Mesquite with minor injuries.

The driver of the Dodge Ram was identified as 53-year-old Laurie Ann Thomas of Terrell. There were three other passengers in the Dodge besides the driver. No one in the Dodge was injured since the vehicle was not actually involved in the collision.

This accident is the first motor-vehicle fatality in Mesquite in 2016. The accident remains under investigation by the Mesquite Police Department traffic division.

Motor Vehicle Accidents in the United States

There were a total of 21,022 occupants of passenger vehicles who lost their lives in 2014 – at least 49 percent of those fatalities involved people who were not wearing their seatbelts or properly restrained.

In 2014, 6.1 million crashes were reported to the police. At least two-thirds of these accidents involved only property damage – meaning no one was killed in those accidents.

Traffic fatalities have been on a general decline for the past few years, decreasing 25 percent from 2005-2014.